Colorado State's Kelsey Snider serves the ball on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, during the Rams' game against the New Mexico Lobos at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. / Dawn Madura/The Coloradoan

Colorado State's Kelsey Snider manages to keep the ball in play on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, during the Rams' game against the New Mexico Lobos at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. The Rams won in four sets. / Dawn Madura/The Coloradoan

It’s matches like Thursday’s that show why CSU is one of the 10 best college volleyball teams in the nation.

Even when things don’t go the Rams’ way, they still manage to work themselves out.

Colorado State University put on one of its worst offensive displays of the season and was dominated by New Mexico in the first set, but still found a way to comeback and beat the Lobos, 16-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-19, inside Moby Arena.

There’s resilience in a young CSU team that just won its school-record 24th consecutive match.

Thursday was the second time the 10th-ranked Rams have found themselves in trouble by losing the first set, but rallying back to win the final three. When a match isn’t going their way, they somehow find a way to take control.

“I know a lot of it is that we know that we’ve been there before. We have to stay consistent and the things we’re good at and fix the things we’re not,” said CSU middle blocker Kelsey Snider, who had 15 kills. “I know I was struggling in the first set, so I knew I had to pick my game up and start hitting higher and play more athletic like I normally do.”

Attack efficiency was the main issue for the Rams, who had a clip of .180, not only hitting the ball long, but having it shoved back in their faces. Blocks were a hot commodity for New Mexico, especially early on.

The Lobos (20-6, 10-5 MW) average 2.79 blocks per set, but tallied 10 in the first two frames Thursday night thanks to New Mexico’s trio of Chantale Riddle, Lexi Ross and Skye Gullatt, who focused on CSU’s middle blockers.

While New Mexico gave CSU fits at the net early, the Rams had fewer attempts blocked each subsequent set, figuring out how to go around and over the Lobos’ defense, eventually running away with the victory.

“Even when you get them one on one, they move their hands around well and do some stuff there that get them some blocks. They’re good at it. It’s rare that we get out-blocked in the Mountain West, but that happened,” CSU coach Tom Hilbert said. “This was a gutsy game for our team. We were tight at first and then we got relaxed and found a flow and we won.”

CSU’s magic number is now two.

With two more victories in their remaining five matches, the Rams (24-0, 14-0 MW) will clinch an outright Mountain West title. And with one win, they guarantee themselves at least a split of the conference championship, which is likely to happen Friday when Air Force (6-19, 3-10) visits Moby Arena.

Fresno State is the only conference team still, mathematically, in contention for a conference title.